FTSE buoyed by oils as crude rises; Vodafone slips

* FTSE 100 up 0.6 pct

* Oils track rising crude prices; banks climb

* Heavyweight Vodafone drags

By Michael Taylor

LONDON, Aug 29 (Reuters) - Britain's blue-chip share index ended 0.6 percent higher on Friday, boosted by oil companies tracking rising energy prices, while fellow heavyweight stock Vodafone (VOD.L: Quote, Profile, Research, Stock Buzz) headed lower.

The FTSE 100 .FTSE climbed 35.4 points to 5,636.6, making for an advance of 4.2 percent in August, but is still down 12.7 percent for the year to date.

Oil stocks led gainers as U.S. crude prices CLc1 rose above $117 a barrel as Tropical Storm Gustav was poised to enter the Gulf of Mexico, raising concerns about its impact on U.S. offshore oil and gas output.

BP (BP.L: Quote, Profile, Research, Stock Buzz), BG Group (BG.L: Quote, Profile, Research, Stock Buzz), Cairn Energy (CNE.L: Quote, Profile, Research, Stock Buzz) and Tullow Oil (TLW.L: Quote, Profile, Research, Stock Buzz) added 1.2-4.2 percent.

Oil and gas services firm Petrofac (PFC.L: Quote, Profile, Research, Stock Buzz) topped the FTSE 100 leaderboard however, up 5.1 percent. The company said it has bought production technology firm Caltec for a maximum 30 million pounds ($54.85 million).

Ukrainian iron ore miner Ferrexpo (FXPO.L: Quote, Profile, Research, Stock Buzz) added 3.6 percent one day after it said it was considering returning excess cash to shareholders.

On the downside, mobile phone giant Vodafone shed 1.3 percent after negative broker comment on Thursday and as jointly its owned South African mobile operator Vodacom agreed to buy most of African network and satellite services firm Gateway for $700 million including debt. [ID:nLT250204]

Also in the red, Enterprise Inns (ETI.L: Quote, Profile, Research, Stock Buzz) slipped 3.6 percent, hit by an investment rating downgrade by Landsbanki to "reduce" from "hold" and initiation as "underperform" by Credit Suisse in two negative reviews of the UK pubs sector.

"The outlook for economic growth and corporate profits is far from great and any fundamental improvement will take time given the excesses that have built up over the last few years," said Nick Batsford, an analyst at Hobart Capital Markets.

"I have no idea whether or not we've hit rock bottom. (But) the bulls are still tentatively on the field, they have the ball and therefore I must run with the strongest plays."

"I will look for stocks with bullish chart patterns, in bullish sectors along with bullish fundamentals," he added.  Continued...